Umana was chosen by the Harvard Law Review’s 92 student editors in what is widely considered the highest-ranked position a student can have at the cut-throat law school.

The difficult election process required a thorough dissection of her work and application, and a 12-hour long deliberation of her portfolio.

The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Umana grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

She’s a joint degree candidate at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Last summer, she interned with the public defender’s office in the Bronx and wants to serve as a public defender.

“I didn’t realize [civics] could be so personal and so alive for a lot of the students,” Umana told the Harvard Crimson, the school’s newspaper. “It taught me sensitivity in teaching, but it also taught me, like the public defender’s service, to not assume certain backgrounds, certain reactions, certain lived experiences.”